So I spent the entire weekend in Packwood, WA, near Mt. Rainier driving cars, looking at cars, and talking about cars. The official autocross event was on Sunday, but there was a practice planned for Saturday. So, in keeping with my resolution to go whole-hog this summer and practice practice practice, I drove down Friday night and came back Sunday, spending the intervening time doing as much driving as possible.
The drive down there was nice. Once I was away from Seattle and its Friday traffic, it was all scenic two-lane roads, about three hours total (the first hour or so dominated by Seattle/Tacoma traffic). The time flew by, and I spent some of it driving along with no music at all, enjoying the air and playing with the MR2's turbo. I took a video camera and in-car mount (goes on the passenger headrest) for racing, but also hooked it up and recorded some of the drive, including an encounter with a herd (is eight a herd?) of deer crossing the road. The route went straight through the park, where the roads were twisty and bumpy, but the whole drive was nice, and I often had the road to myself. The drive back was similarly nice, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, though there were many more cars on the road. I filmed again. Packwood itself was a nice little town, just big enough for two gas stations, a few restaurants, and a lot of motels and lodges. I was staying at a nondescript motel, which was fine. The autocross site itself was at a mill, a huge sort-of-flat paved area. The pits were in a giant warehouse, which was very nice -- with the sun and heat, it was good to be able to keep yourself and your stuff cool.
The Saturday practice was great. A really good driver, named Karl, who has basically my car but without the turbo, offered to ride along with me and give me pointers. People do this a lot, ride along, try out each others' cars, offer hints to novices. I also took a course walk (when you walk through the course you'll be driving and try to figure out what line to take) with Karl and some other people. The course basically started off with a short straight, and then an offset slalom (back and forth through cones, but they're offset so you can go through them more quickly, almost just leaning the car back and forth). After that was a long right-hand turn. There was a sharp left, then another long right-hander, then a long slalom, another long right-hander, a short slalom, and then a right-handed loop, and a tight "S" at the finish. I describe it all just to point out that this course had all these long hard turns, and they were all to the right (the next day, the course would be run in reverse, so maybe all the turning evened out). The walk was very helpful, as Karl was able to talk us through th course. Fortunately, his directions were mostly fairly easy to remember -- in most cases he just said to stay as close as possible to the cones. On the sharp left and the S he said basically there's no way to get through quickly, so just get hard on the brakes and ease through. In that sense I think it was an easier course than some -- at least, I didn't spend too much time thinking about what I should be doing and could just focus on actually doing it.
On my first run through, Karl rode along. He reminded me of what I should be doing at various points, but the most useful thing was that he kept telling me "more gas" and "get on the gas earlier". In places where I would have been worried and eased off, he told me to push, and, being a much better driver, he was right. I finished with a 70-something, not bad. On the next couple of rides, though he wasn't in the car, I just kept imagining him saying "more gas! earlier!" and was able to improve my times a little, though I hit some cones (68- and 69- something). My fourth run was my best -- I managed to push harder and not hit anything and ended with a 67 (on the video, you can hear me say "Yes!" when they hand me the timing slip). On my last run, I spun the car. Though interestingly, it wasn't because I pushed the car too far but because I screwed up. In the video, you can see me screw up and then overcorrect wildly, and the car goes right into a spin. After the practice runs, there was a little more time, so we got "fun runs". On my first I forgot the "faster!" mantra and got a 70, but then on my last I pushed again and got another 67, though this time with a cone.
It was a great day. I felt much more in control of the car than I have in the past. Karl's help gave me some additional confidence, and I was better able to feel what was going on. In those long turns, I felt well in control, giving the right amount of brake or gas to get through. Karl's observation was that I was basically doing the right things, and just need to work on doing them faster and looking ahead more. Thinking through my runs, I also thought of a couple things I'd done wrong and how to fix them (in particular, going into the longer slalom with too much speed and not head-on, which forced me to brake as I went through and cost me time, I think), and I was eager to try things out again on Sunday.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. During tech inspection, the guy checking over my car pointed out what felt like a wheel bearing starting to go. He said it was up to me whether to drive and risk losing it. I thought about it for a while, and sought some advice, and finally decided not to risk it. With no trailer, I'd be stranded if I did lose the bearing. Plus, Karl's car had suffered the same problem on the same wheel (left front -- thanks to all those long hard right turns) the day before, and it seemed an omen. So I spent Sunday morning playing photographer and spectator and headed home in the afternoon. Of course it was disappointing, but I still had a great weekend.
The next big thing is autocross school in a few weeks. The car should be fixed up by then. I'm definitely starting to see why Cory warned me about this being an expensive hobby. I'm mostly taking a minimal approach, but things add up, and your car has to be in good shape, and you have to maintain it that way. And lets not even talk about the temptation to start improving the car. Still, my plan is to keep doing it this summer and decide later how much time/money I want to invest in it in the future. Of course, by then I might be properly addicted.
Categories: cars
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